The Network
by awesomest99er
Summary: How I think I.N.K. started. (It got deleted, but I put it back up here. o-o)
1. Zero's Story

ZERO P.O.V.

I choked back a sob as I lied in my bed and tried to sleep. It was awful living with my dad.

A light turned off in the hallway, so I knew he was going to bed.

This was my chance. I turned on a flashlight and grabbed my suitcase. Then I put some important things in it. Carefully, I tip-toed to the kitchen and grabbed a water bottle and some trail mix.

My dad didn't even notice when I left.

I zipped up my blue jacket. My breath made little vapor clouds in front of me. Did the buses even run this late? I looked at the watch I put in my bag. It was only nine-thirty, so I decided I was okay. After grabbing some money, I sat on my suitcase near the bus stop and considered where to go. The orphanage? A store? School?

"Running away from home, are you?" someone asked.

I decided not to answer. Instead I just put my hands in my pockets and watched my breath. After a while, the bus parked in front of me. I hurried on board.

"How much is a bus ticket?" I asked the driver.

"Two quid," he replied.

I handed him the money.

I shuffled to the back of the bus and sat with my suitcase on my lap. My eyes started to close. Before I knew it, I was sleeping.

* * *

><p>Something hit me in the arm.<p>

"Hngh...?" I looked up and saw a man standing over me. For a second, I thought it was my dad, and I nearly screamed.

"This is the last stop, girlie," the man said.

Nodding, I picked up my suitcase and climbed off the bus. I turned on my flashlight and looked around. Houses, houses, houses, a gate. I decided it wouldn't be the best idea to go knocking on random doors, so I headed towards the gate.

"Pinkerton," I muttered, reading the sign. "Boarding school?"

That felt like the right place to go. I ran through the open gate and to the separate building that was probably the office.

A man sat at a desk. He scribbled something down on a paper. The man seemed kind of nice. He had tan skin, brown eyes, salt-and-pepper hair, and big red glasses.

"Sir?"

The man looked up. "Oh? Who are you?"

I put my hands on the desk. "My name is Zero. I'd like to enroll."

The man considered this for perhaps half a second. "Alright. But I need you to promise me one thing: no violence."

Smiling, I nodded. "Promise."

"There's no one here right now. I can take you to a dorm room, if you like. Some more people are going to come later." The man stood and led me into the school. "This is just an experimental school," he continued. "We're trying to get people of many different backgrounds to come here. That way it's a good experiment. By the way, my name's Mr. Soper. Oh, here's your room." Mr. Soper opened a door.

"Thank you." I walked into the room and sighed with relief.


	2. Vin's Story

VIN P.O.V.

The orphans sat in front of a smallish TV that made a weird noise when it was turned on and had pretty bad graphics. A spy movie was playing. My favorite one.

"Whoa," I whispered. "I want to be a spy when I grow up."

The other orphans weren't as interested as I was, though. Some of them just left.

"A man is here from an experimental boarding school," the orphanage owner said. "He might take in one or two of you for the school."

I didn't listen because I was too busy watching the movie. It was getting to a really good part.

"Vincent?" The orphanage owner looked at me. "You're always saying how you want to get adopted. This could be your chance."

"I know, but I really like this movie...What are the chances that I could be a spy when I grow up? Do you think it's possible?"

The orphanage owner sighed. "I don't know."

Eager to be out of the orphanage, the other orphans left the TV.

A man whispered to the orphanage owner. Maybe he was the one from the boarding school?

"Vincent."

I looked up.

"Mr. Soper here wants to take you to Pinkerton."

Mr. Soper was kind of weird, but he still seemed nice. After I grabbed my suitcase, I followed the man out of the orphanage. He hailed a cab, and we climbed in.

"You remind me of someone," Mr. Soper remarked. He didn't say anything else.

"Hey, do you have my records?"

Mr. Soper looked confused.

"The orphanage owner never lets me read my records," I explained. "And she won't let me know my parents. I don't even remember them, but I want to know who they are." I put a hand on a medallion my parents gave me. It was under my shirt so no one would see it.

Mr. Soper just smiled. "Do you go by Vin or Vincent?"

"Vin," I replied. It sounded much cooler than Vincent, but I still liked the name because that's what my parents called me.

"I see." Mr. Soper wrote something down in a manila folder.

So he did have my records! And he wasn't letting me read them. I thought of the spy movie and how I could do something like that to get my records.

The cab stopped at a large building with a gate that said "Pinkerton". A girl with white hair, blue eyes, and white skin (literally white!) stood on top of a jungle gym.

"That's Zero," Mr. Soper explain as he paid the cab driver. "She's another student here. The others are going to come later."

I nodded and walked through the gate.

"Hi," I said to the girl. "My name's Vin."

Zero ignored me. She was probably listening to music on those headphones she was wearing.

Mr. Soper showed me to my room. I had a whole room to myself! No one else was there!

The first thing I did was hang up a spy poster in there.


End file.
